Building Fertile Soil

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Start with a 3-inch to 6-inch layer of organic matter (tell your neighbors you want their bags of clean grass clippings and leaves). As the material rots and compacts, add more to maintain the depth.

If you don't grow cover crops, mulch thickly so microbes and earthworms have cover and a food supply during the winter. Instead of discarding autumn leaves, shred them with a lawn mower and use them to mulch beds. Other easy-to-find mulch materials include hay, grass clippings and wheat straw.

COVER CROPS

Cover crops are the web's best friend. They protect bare soil, add nutrients and offer a stable environment for microbes and earthworms when ground is fallow. Cover crops help reduce the harmful effects of erosion from rain and wind, and, by moderating soil temperature, prevent heaving caused by alternate freezing and thawing. As cover-crop roots decay, they leave channels for new plant roots to find.

While Weil favors a legume-grass mixture (a hairy vetch-and-rye combination) for cover crops, Diver favors clovers. "I love crimson clover because it has such a pretty flower," Diver says, "and subterranean clover because its plant residue is very effective at suppressing weeds." He says the effectiveness of oilseed radishes as a cover crop also has been studied in cold climates. The radishes endure frigid winters, send taproots deep into the soil and manufacture glucosinolates that repel parasitic nematodes. Glucosinolates are sulfur compounds found in the brassica family, including radishes, that act as biofumigants for the soil. Consider using a brassica cover crop if pest nematodes are a big problem in your garden. (Some nematodes attack plants while others help control soil-dwelling insect pests such as lawn grubs. This second type can be purchased and introduced to the garden.)

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